Bowman v. United States Dept. of Justice, Civ. A. No. CA80-0432-R.

• Decision Date: 14 April 1981
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. CA80-0432-R.
• Citation: 510 F. Supp. 1183
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
• Parties: James R. BOWMAN, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, FEDERAL PRISON SYSTEM, Defendant.

510 F. Supp. 1183

James R. BOWMAN, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, FEDERAL PRISON SYSTEM, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. CA80-0432-R.

United States District Court, E. D. Virginia, Richmond Division.

April 14, 1981.

James R. Bowman, pro se.

Robert W. Jaspen, Asst. U. S. Atty., Richmond, Va., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

MERHIGE, District Judge.

James R. Bowman, proceeding pro se, brings this action to challenge the constitutionality, under the equal protection and due process clauses, of his mandatory retirement from the Bureau of Prisons at the age of 55. Jurisdiction is founded on 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Trial of this matter was held of February 2, 1981. Many of the material facts were entered by stipulation and Mr. Bowman himself was the only witness.

Mr. Bowman was born on August 8, 1922, and began his employment with the Bureau of Prisons on March 3, 1958 as a correctional officer at the federal penitentiary in Petersburg, Virginia. Three years later he was promoted to the position of maintenance shop foreman, with responsibility for repairing and maintaining machinery at the penitentiary. His next position was general foreman, supervising inmates working on construction projects, first at Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and then once again at Petersburg. Mr. Bowman's last assignment with the Bureau was project foreman at the penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. In that position, he supervised the work of private contractors performing construction work for the Bureau, ensuring that their work conformed to government specifications. As project foreman, he did not supervise inmates. However, his testimony established that he was in the presence of inmates during much of the working day; that he was expected to, and in fact did, assist in any way possible in the event of an inmate disturbance or emergency; and that his duties were such that he could at any time have been moved to a position in which he would once again have direct supervisory responsibilities over inmates.

In February 1978, Mr. Bowman wrote letters requesting an exemption from the mandatory retirement provisions applicable to Bureau of Prisons employees. His request was denied, and on March 31, 1978, the last day of the month in which he completed 20 years of service with the Bureau, he was retired.

Throughout his career with the Bureau of Prisons, Mr. Bowman was an extremely dedicated and competent employee. He received many awards and citations — for sustained superior performance, for special achievements, and for suggestions. Because he enjoyed his work and felt a strong loyalty to the Bureau, he desired to continue to work past the age of 55, and felt physically and mentally able to do so.

Mr. Bowman was retired pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 8335(b), which requires that certain federal employees, including "law enforcement officers", be separated at age 55 or after twenty years of service, whichever comes later. A separate definitional section, 5 U.S.C. § 8331(20), provides that, for purposes of § 8335(b), the term "law enforcement officer" includes Bureau of Prisons employees "whose duties in connection with individuals in detention ... require frequent ... direct contact with these individuals in their detention, direction, supervision, inspection, training, employment, care, transportation, or rehabilitation...." While Mr. Bowman did not, at the time he was retired, have direct supervisory authority over individuals in detention, the Court finds that he was a law enforcement officer within the contemplation of the statute.

Mr. Bowman's complaint and testimony at trial can be construed to raise the following claims: that his involuntary retirement constituted age discrimination in violation of his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection; that the government's failure to provide him with an opportunity to contest the decision to terminate him by demonstrating his continued fitness violated the due process clause; that the provisions under which he was retired, 5 U.S.C. §§ 8331 and 8335(b), are superseded by the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; and that this Court can review, and should reverse, the decision of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to deny Mr. Bowman an exemption from mandatory retirement.

The constitutionality of a mandatory retirement statute under the Equal Protection clause is determined under the rational basis standard. Because such a classification neither burdens the exercise of a fundamental right, nor functions so as to disadvantage a "suspect class", mandatory retirement does not violate equal protection if it is rationally related to a legitimate governmental purpose. Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U.S. 307, 96 S.Ct. 2562, 49 L.Ed.2d 520 (1976); Vance v. Bradley, 440 U.S. 93, 99 S.Ct. 939, 59 L.Ed.2d 171 (1979).

The purpose of § 8335(b) is to maintain a fit and vigorous work force, capable of performing the frequently taxing duties inherent in law enforcement work, whether on the streets or in the prisons. There is no dispute as to the legitimacy of this objective. The issue, then, is whether or not the particular means chosen — mandatory retirement at age 55 — is rationally related to the asserted purpose.

In Murgia the Supreme Court upheld, under a rational basis standard, a Massachusetts statute requiring uniformed police officers to retire at age 50. The Court finds the reasoning of that case dispositive of Mr. Bowman's claims. Here, as in Murgia, a legislative judgment was made that, because of the nature of the work, the individual's ability to perform in law enforcement gradually declines with age. And here, as in Murgia, a further judgment was made as to the approximate age at which the aging process begins to take its toll. The government need not come forward with empirical evidence to support the legislative findings; rather, the burden is on the person challenging the findings "to convince the Court that the...